For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON - An
international coalition of environmental and community groups has
launched a national ad campaign calling on President Obama and Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton to stop a pipeline designed to carry the
world’s dirtiest oil through American communities.

The
advertising campaign will include primetime television ads on CNN,
MSNBC, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report. In addition, the Sierra Club is running ads on Politico.com calling on Secretary Clinton to say no to the pipeline.

“This toxic
pipeline would put American drinking water, air, and farmland at great
risk,” said Sierra Club Dirty Fuels Campaign Director Kate Colarulli.
“We’re confident that once Americans learn about this risky foreign oil
pipeline, they will join us in calling on President Obama and Secretary
Clinton to stop it.”

The State
Department must approve a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which
would carry toxic tar sands oil from Canada across America’s Midwest and
into Texas, putting drinking water and farmland at risk. Dozens of
members of Congress, along with the EPA, DOE and others have raised
concerns about the safety of the pipeline and are calling on Secretary
Clinton to require a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which
would mandate additional analysis and a chance for the public to
officially comment on the new information.

In addition to
threatening water and farming communities in America, the pipeline
would support a growing environmental disaster in Alberta, where the oil
is mined by clear-cutting ancient forest and leaving toxic lakes
behind. It would also add to the problem of climate disruption, since
tar sands oil creates roughly three times as much global warming
pollution as conventional oil.

“Building this
pipeline would be like putting 6.5 million new cars on America’s roads,
right when we are making strides in fighting global warming pollution,”
Colarulli said. “The Obama administration and Secretary Clinton have
signaled that they are ready to leave dirty fuels behind and embrace
clean energy jobs. This pipeline would represent a giant step in the
wrong direction.”

The Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892 in San Francisco, California by the well-known conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president. The Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members in chapters located throughout the US, and is affiliated with Sierra Club Canada.

Further

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